THE WORDS OF SUBEDAI
An ongoing monologue about the trials and tribulations of life in general, being an avid reader, figure painter, terrain modeller, part time wargamer -with a rather scary fixation for the Mongols- part time rule writer, aspiring writer and photographer, very amateur artist and being a follower of both West Ham United and Sittingbourne FC...ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Friday, 16 October 2015

Once the conservatory was finished and the Battle of Garston compleated and packed away, I was scratching around for a new project. Unfortunately all my 6mm WW II campaign information was on the old drive which I am hoping soon to be be able to access but until then...

Rummaging around listlessly I came across an unopened jiffy bag which revealed some H&R 6mm Flemish Persians (Achemenid sounds Flemish anyway so over the decades the word has stuck). Further investigation in Narnia revealed another acquired bag full of H&R 6mm Sassanid Persians and Alexandrian Macedonians (don't ask, I have no idea). So now I have the starts of three different armies.

I am going to base them on 40 x 20's coz they look quite nice on that size and you get 3 LC and 6 EHC on a base...I haven't got any further than that yet although by now the Magic Wash on the Sassy LC should be dry so a-varnishing I will go. Pics next time.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

The past few weeks Ma Subs and I
have been involved in a project, completely unrelated to wargaming but
necessary, and that was fixing the conservatory. This involved taking off all
the roofing pieces of wriggly plastic bits –broken and otherwise- and replacing
them with nice new see-through sheets, painting all of the supporting woodwork
etc., etc. even with my mate and his missus helping it still took several days
to get the lid back on so as all the little fiddly jobs could then get done. Luckily
the weather held. So, while Ma Subs went back to Brum on a family visit, I was
able to have a solo game set up in Narnia. It was still on-going when the roof
was being done so I managed a couple of moves every so often.

This time, I
thought I would play a 6mm WW II using my new scenery and try out the old WRG Armour
and Infantry 1925-1950 Rules from June 1973 that we used to use. Now I have
fond memories of these rules from playing with Airfix models and figures in a
mate’s front room so there was quite a high nostalgia factor here.

So, onto the
game. The wind was blowing from the south-east, so that's why all the smoke is angled across the board. Advanced apologies for the slight blurriness of some of the pictures but I don't have the space for a full tripod set up.

The Wargame Map

Garston Aerodrome on the bottom left of the table. (The tower building is based on the one at West Malling in Kent and the two hangers are 'J' Type from all over the place).

On the first move Kroos -on the right- and Muhler -on the left- advanced onto the board by the SE and SW roads respectively. Kroos immediately came under fire from a 6pdr AT next to the Queens Head pub which took out his lead 222. His advance halted, his infantry dismounted and began a stealthy advance along the tall roadside hedges towards the pub. The Puma used the destroyed 222 as cover while it's gun sought out the enemy.

On the other flank, Muhler also came under fire, a 6pdr AT hidden amongst the buildings of Theakstons Farm knocked out his lead 222 and his infantry in the lorries came under small arms fire from the nearest group of rocks. The infantry immediately dismounted and dove for cover along the hedge line.

This went on for several moves. While Kroos managed to make some headway, Muhler was not so fortunate; eventually losing all his AFV's for very little gain. His only real success was to force the infantry out of the rocks and make them fall back the Pine Tree Wood. This happened just in time for the British as on Moves 7 and 8, Mertesacker's panzers began to advance towards the British positions.

By Move 10 the panzers of Hauptmann Schweinstiger's Nr. 1. Kompanie had crossed the hill but immediately came under fire from 'A' Company's tanks concealed by the high hedges just outside Garston. Eventually Schweinstiger lost all but one of his Mk IV's and had to make an ignominious retreat.

In the centre, Hauptmann Lamm and his company of Mk IV's initially made some ground but the Shermans and Firefly of 'B' Company knocked out half his command.

Major Mertesacker with the HQ Kompanie and Zeigler's Nr. 3. Kompanie fared little better in the face of the 6 pdr AT guns hidden in the rocks and a 17pdr AT gun even further back on the bend of the road by the wood.

Eventually Mertesacker, with almost half his battalion lost, had no option but to order a retreat and request an artillery barrage before the next assault.

On the Orbat, losses are the numbers or the letter 'd' in brackets after each formation.

Subedai (aka Mick Sayce)

Apparently I'm a grumpy old man who spends too much time on the computer, reading, watching football -especially West Ham United- and painting 'toy' soldiers.(Pearls of Wisdom from the other half).
P.S. Photo of moi was taken by the OH at El Jem, an incredibly atmospheric, ruined Roman amphitheatre in Tunisia.